The solution is honestly not as complicated as some think it is

[Ayan_Calvesse]

There are reasons. The question becomes if those reasons are important enough for SE to allow other players to be blocked from also owning because a small percentage of players have multiple houses.

Keep in mind that taking away houses from players that currently own them does not make houses appear only where needed. Taking away multiple houses owned on Gilgamesh by a single player does not add those houses to Balmung or Mateus, where competition for a house appears to be the greatest. That will always be a problem because SE can't control what worlds players choose to play on, they can only control which worlds players cannot make new characters on or transfer to.


There's no need for any housing, there is only player desire for it.

That doesn't mean that it shouldn't be part of the game. Many players wouldn't end up happy with a space that's interior only, which is part of why apartments don't solve anything except for those who are only looking for a place to store their indoor furnishings. .


That would depend on SE.

If you want to see what is possible with execution, there are other MMORPGs with instanced housing that can offer examples. It doesn't mean SE would copy those systems in part or in full.

I would love to have RIFT Dimensions in FFXIV, sans the cash shop housing item loot boxes. There were still other ways to get housing items (vendors, creature drops, seasonal events, etc.) but some of the more popular items were only in lootboxes.

Bolded is direct contradiction - if a player cannot make characters there nor transfer to there then SE does indeed control where you "play" if we are speaking about housing. I also do not see why the failed game RIFT keeps getting brought up if this was such a great idea. The reality is that implementing a instanced housing system would be very costly and likely exploited. I would rather they fix the housing system as is.

SE has all the information they need to implement a solution - I think the reality is that the instanced crowd really seems to not be acting in good faith as it seems to be a "all or nothing" approach.

[Jojoya]

Bolded is direct contradiction - if a player cannot make characters there nor transfer to there then SE does indeed control where you "play" if we are speaking about housing. I also do not see why the failed game RIFT keeps getting brought up if this was such a great idea. The reality is that implementing a instanced housing system would be very costly and likely exploited. I would rather they fix the housing system as is.

SE has all the information they need to implement a solution - I think the reality is that the instanced crowd really seems to not be acting in good faith as it seems to be a "all or nothing" approach.

Perhaps I should have used the word "won't" instead of "can't". They want to encourage players to bring friends and family to play the game with them. Even with world visit/data center travel, there's a bad impression created when the player has to tell the new player "but you can't play on the same world I'm on". So they only lock down worlds when the population gets to be too large compared to the rest. Balmung is our perennial example.

It's not like the game is only about housing or people choose to play it only because of housing. There is still a significant part of the player base that doesn't engage with housing at all, or at most only engages with their FC's housing. They're not going to make their decisions about Congested status because of housing.

I bring up RIFT because RIFT's problems had nothing to do with its housing. People can still play RIFT on official servers, even if I wouldn't recommend it because of the company that currently owns the game.

I could also bring up Wildstar, which truly is a failed game but again it had nothing with their instanced housing. That's the one thing about that game players were happy with.

ESO - not a failed game. Uses instanced housing close to what RIFT used.

Your problem is that you keep equating adding an improved instanced housing system to this game as a need to start a housing system from scratch. That is not necessary when we already have a functional housing system. Art assets for creating the instanced location already exist. Housing items already exist. Furnishing placement controls already exist. Ways for players to reach their housing already exists. All that would be needed is for SE is to put those things together so the instanced spaces are larger and more appealing to players.

Oh look - there's Island Sanctuary. It's an instanced space for every player who finishes 6.0 MSQ. Oh look, there's SE working on adding the ability for players to place outdoor furnishings in their Sanctuary. Once that's completed, it shouldn't be difficult to add a way to place indoor furnishings.

Hey, we're scheduled to get a second Island in 6.4 or 6.5. That hopefully means new art assets for our personal instances.

(Varshahn does tell us in optional dialog available after starting the post 6.0 MSQ that he wished he knew we had experience running an island because he's got islands also in need of management. He wants to talk to us later about that - hint of what our next island will be?

I'm not sure what you're referring to when you claim instanced housing could be exploited. Do you mean getting multiple houses? Well guess what - RIFT and ESO players are able to get multiple instanced housing locations per character. Instanced housing is not persistent like the wards are so it's not a problem. The player wants to go into one of their instanced housing locations - the instance opens and loads their housing assets. They want to move to another? The new one opens so they can go in then the current one closes when they leave.

Instanced housing is not an all or nothing approach. We've said multiple times that both ward housing and instanced housing can co-exist. It's the ward proponents that are not acting in good faith, trying to claim that it's "all or nothing". Instanced housing already exists in the wards via apartments. They already co-exist. What we're asking is that instanced housing be improved to go beyond a simple apartment. Will it take some effort on SE part? Yes. Will it be the problematic mess you claim? No. The game already has what's needed to make it happen. Ever notice those long paths in Goblet and Lavender Beds that lead absolutely nowhere? Examples of good places to add the entry points for instanced estates just as players walk to the apartment building door to select to enter their apartment or another player apartment.

How much experience have you actually had with instanced housing and in what games that makes you hate the idea so much?